January 14, 2026
Cue the keyboard wars
Media Player Classic Qute Theater
Old-school player gets a glow-up; fans feud over the “best” way to watch
TLDR: MPC-QT brings the classic Media Player Classic look back with modern features for Windows and Linux. Comments split between fans loving it as a comfy replacement and those saying UOSC on mpv feels smoother, turning a simple media player update into a full-blown UI turf war.
Media Player Classic Qute Theater is here to revive the beloved Windows-era player with a fresh coat of paint and modern guts. The project recreates the familiar look of MPC-HC (that old fan-favorite) but uses a slick engine under the hood, adding goodies like multiple playlists, thumbnail previews, playing online videos via yt-dlp, and even cheeky styling dubbed “Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancements.” Translation: it’s the classic vibe with extra buttons and sparkle. The download page spans Windows and Linux, with dev builds for the tinker-happy crowd. But the comments? Pure popcorn. One camp is shouting “Finally!” while the other smirks, “Just use UOSC with mpv.” User longstation drops a calm-but-lethal line—“I find the latter nicer”—and suddenly we’re in a UI beauty pageant. Meanwhile, TechPlasma gushes that MPC-QT is a “fantastic replacement” after moving from Windows’ MPC-BE, praising shortcuts and a tidy interface. The vibe is split: minimalists who worship mpv’s sleek overlays vs. nostalgics who want buttons, playlists, and the comfort of a classic. Jokes about slapping a spoiler on your player to make it “go faster” fly, and someone inevitably brags they’ve ditched their “progress spreadsheet” thanks to multi-playlists. It’s cozy nostalgia versus clean modernism—with both sides pressing play, loudly.
Key Points
- •MPC-QT reimplements Media Player Classic with Qt and libmpv, aiming to replicate MPC-HC’s interface and functionality.
- •Release builds exist for Windows and Linux, using time-based versioning; development builds are available via AppImage, Flatpak, and native formats.
- •Unimplemented options are hidden or disabled to preserve MPC-HC’s familiar settings layout.
- •Key features include multiple playlists, seekbar thumbnail previews, yt-dlp support, quick queuing, multi-threaded playlist search, customizable screenshots, custom metadata, and in-app styling.
- •Contributions and translations are accepted via PRs and Weblate; compiling from source requires Qt6 SDK and recent libmpv (≥ 0.37.0), with Ubuntu package guidance provided.